News

Civil Rights Song 'We Shall Overcome' Part of Public Domain

2/7/2018 11:34:46 PM

The civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome,” which has been quoted by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and was made popular by folk singer Pete Seeger, has been declared a part of public domain.
Ludlow Music, the song's publisher, agreed in a New York federal court last week to back down on claims of copyright after losing a summary judgment in the case. The publisher said in a stipulation filed last Friday that it waived the right to appeal the judge's opinion and agreed the melody and lyrics are “dedicated to the public domain.”
The lawsuit was filed by...

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles homicide rate dropped last year but Police Chief Charlie Beck says there's still work to do in lowering the death rate.
Figures released last week show there were 282 reported homicides, down 4 percent from 2016.
Nearly 63 percent of those killings were gang-related, showing an upward spike.
The LAPD says most of the victims and suspects were Hispanics and African-Americans.
The homeless population also was affected, with 44 victims and 33 suspects.
The good news is that the homicide rate has improved dramatically, dropping by more than...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let a court-ordered redrawing of congressional districts in Pennsylvania proceed, denying a plea from Republicans legislative leaders to block it.
Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency appeals from Pennsylvania, rejected the request from the GOP leaders and voters that the court put on hold an order from the state Supreme Court that could now produce new congressional districts in the coming two weeks.
The Pennsylvania high court ruled last month that the map of 18 districts violated the state constitution because it unfairly benefited...

By Martha Waggoner
The renewed version of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign to lift poor people is holding its first national mobilization, with actions and events Monday in 32 states and the nation’s capital.
Poor people, clergy and activists in the Poor People’s Campaign delivered letters to politicians in state Capitol buildings demanding that leaders confront what they call systemic racism evidenced in voter suppression laws and poverty rates.
Among those who have signed on to the campaign is the Rev. John Mendez, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist...

By Errin Haines Whack
President Donald Trump's call for American unity in his first State of the Union address struck an us-versus-them tone for many minorities, raising questions as to what extent Americans are put off by a leader who continually draws criticism as bigoted and xenophobic.
For many people of color, Trump's address before Congress last week hardly reflected a shift in his ideology or his bruising style of governance. It was not lost on them that the president simply softened what he's been saying all along, particularly when it comes to immigration,...

By Seth Borenstein
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump seems to be describing another planet's climate because the Earth he described doesn't quite match what data shows and scientists say.
In an interview with Piers Morgan airing Sunday on Britain's ITV News, the president said the world was cooling and warming at the same time and that claims of melting ice caps haven't come true.
___
TRUMP: “There is a cooling, and there's a heating. I mean, look, it used to not be climate change, it used to be global warming. That wasn't working too...

NEW YORK (AP)—After they lost their home in Puerto Rico to flooding during Hurricane Maria, Enghie Melendez fled with her family to the U.S. mainland with three suitcases and the hope it wouldn’t take long to rebuild their lives. It hasn’t worked out that way.
More than four months later, the family of five is squeezed into two rooms in a hotel in Brooklyn. While her husband looks for work, they are stuck in limbo, eating off paper plates and stepping over clothes in cramped quarters as they try to get settled in an unfamiliar city.
“After the hurricane hit we...

By Stacy M. Brown
Students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system are learning faster than just about any other school district in the nation, according to new research.
Research provided by Stanford Professor Sean Reardon shows that students in the Windy City have gained six years of learning in just five years.
Reardon based his analysis on 300 million elementary school test scores covering more than 11,000 school districts.
“I don’t think CPS is doing anything extraordinary or special for parent engagement, but it may be worth pointing out that we’re...

A Vermont high school will fly a Black Lives Matter flag outside the school for the month of February, Black History Month.
Montpelier Public Schools announced Wednesday that Montpelier High School would fly the flag after a year of school officials working with the student-led Racial Justice Alliance. The student group said in a statement that Vermont has a long history as being at the forefront of civil rights movement, and the decision to fly the flag builds on that legacy.
The school board unanimously voted on Jan. 17 to raise the Black Lives Matter flag in front of Montpelier High...

SANTA ANA—More than $50 million worth of gold bars, coins and dust that’s been described as the greatest lost treasure in U.S. history is about to make its public debut in California after sitting at the bottom of the ocean for more than 150 years.
The 3,100 gold coins, 45 gold bars and more than 80 pounds of gold dust recovered from the wreckage of the S.S. Central America steamship are now sitting in a makeshift laboratory just south of Los Angeles.
Bob Evans, the chief scientist on the original voyage that discovered the shipwreck and its treasure in 1988, is now...